Campaigning

Because ‘Women’s health’ issues are still too often normalised, dismissed, or shrouded in shame and taboo – especially those that are related to gynaecology – meaning that women often delay seeking help, and education and workplace settings are not always accommodating of women’s health issues.

Because there is a sex and gender health gap; people registered female at birth weren’t routinely included in medical trials until the 1990s, meaning many medical pathways have only been tested on men and don’t take into account the variations in female bodies.

Because ‘women’s health’ has historically been under-funded and under-researched. The result is that the health issues that either exclusively or predominantly impact us often experience a lack of research, data, and lack of investment in appropriate health services and treatments. This can cause our health to deteriorate further.

Because conditions that affect both sexes often have their treatment – and diagnosis – based on the male model. This means that the different symptoms women may experience are over-looked or dismissed (e.g. heart disease / heart attacks – which kill MORE women than men per year, or autism).

Because discrimination and medical misogyny exists; for example when it comes to pain and emergency admissions as a result, women wait longer than men for pain relief, and are more likely to be given sedatives instead. This suggests that women’s pain tends to be considered, first and foremost, as being more to do with stress and anxiety rather than actual pain. And, whilst stress and anxiety are very real issues which can affect anybody, it often tends to be women and girls who have their pain attributed to a psychological cause, with females more likely to be stereotyped as ‘weak’, ‘melodramatic’, or imagining their symptoms.